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The TV show Friends caused 9/11 + the fall of the West
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I think the TV show Friends was evil.
I think that Friends will be to blame for the fall of western civilisation.
I think that Friends caused 9/11.
And I want to convince you that I'm not a loony...
Part 1.
Why Friends isn't a sit-com.
The TV show Friends… What is it?
Sounds like a simple enough question but it really isn't. 'Friends' would like you to think of it as a sit-com – just like how Kevin Spacey in The Usual Suspects would like you to think of him as a harmless cripple. Deception is of course the work of the devil.
A sit-com is a situation comedy. They work by taking conflicting personality types and trapping them together. The Office, Red Dwarf, Porridge – it's all the same thing – people who'd clearly rather not spend time together trapped in the same place. It is a very clear formula. Sometimes (as in Porridge) the trap is fairly obvious (the prison), other times it is based on the fact you can't choose or escape from your relatives (think Fraser's dad or the mother in law in Bewitched), sometimes the characters are trapped with each other because they are too nasty and self centred to be able to make other mates (think Sienfeld).
The reason why sitcoms trap people is to play with 'personal nightmares'. The writers' task is to create a world in which one, some or all of the characters are trapped in their own personal nightmare. This is funny because it is tragic. Is having Rodney for a brother Del Boy's nightmare or is it the other way round? Either way you can analyse it until you either laugh or cry.
The TV show 'Friends' though… the characters are not trapped together. No one is experiencing a nightmare. They are all rather successful in their lives and have just chosen to spend time with each other. In fact the characters are often rather nasty about people outside of their group (I'm thinking of 'Günter' or whatever his name is). They are the in crowd. They are the winners.
This then isn't a sit-com by any true definition… So then what is it?
There are six main personality types that advertisers have long used in order to sell shit to people. If you want to know what these six personality types are then, well good news, you know them already. You know them by the names Joey, Rachel, Ross… and so on.
It's no sit-com. It's an advert.
Just like an advert you are meant to be thinking "oh look, that's like a version of me but much more successful – if I was just a little bit more like them then I'd be successful too… I wonder how to be more like them… Hey look she's buying something from Ralf Lorene… Perhaps if I brought something from Ralf Lorene too?…"
Of course this only works if you crush someone's self esteem before sitting them down to watch it. Luckily for Friends they have The Rembrandts "Your life's a joke, you're broke, your love life's DOA" – don't be fooled they are not talking about the characters in the show. They are talking about you. You big pile of worthless shit. Luckily there is hope because this show will "be there for you".
They crush your will then offer you a bright primary coloured world where everything is simple and everyone is happy and all you have to do is just join in and become more like them then all of your problems will just go away…
This, by the way, is exactly how cults operate.
Concealed manipulation, subliminal bulling – this is what Friends was designed for. And boy was it good at it. Need evidence?
Remember the rush for the Rachel haircut?
The rise and rise of the coffee shop?
The global re-branding of city centre living?
Most shows start with a writer with an idea or a star in need of a vehicle. Friends was commissioned by advertisers – the concept being simply to get people in the mood to buy things during the adverts. Please note that this is the sole INTENTION of the show – this will become an important point in the next part of the rant.
PART 2
SO WHAT IT'S FUNNY
I agree that Friends (although clearly not a sitcom as it pretends to be) can be funny. But does that make it Ok? Can we really say 'Oh never mind all that, it makes me laugh, who cares about who made it or why'? If Hitler farted whilst giving a speech I'm sure many of us would laugh but it would it detract us from spotting the evil inherent in his words?
Perhaps comparing Friends to Hitler may seem extreme to you, but I think the comparison is justified. To explain this viewpoint to you I will try to defend the following two (admittedly at first outlandish) statements: a) The TV show Friends must bear some responsibility for the impending recession, b) The TV show Friends must bear some responsibility for the events of 9/11.
Part 2a : The TV show Friends must bear some responsibility for the impending recession.
Not everybody can be successful. Not everybody can live in a designer flat Manhattan. For one thing philosophically speaking if everyone is successful then no one is. For another, there just aren't enough flats in Manhattan for everyone to have one each.
As I've already explained we look at the Friends universe and think "Wow my life's a bit shit and I'd much prefer to live like that" and we are offered tit bits of helpful information as to how to achieve it.
They are no brighter than us, they are no more hard working – how come I don't have that too?
The problem is that not all people can afford to take that girl to the expensive restaurant. Not everyone can afford to keep up with fashion. Not everyone can afford to spend all day drinking in a coffee house just around the corner from their own kettle.
Yet they try to.
Living above your means – the cancer of the west. We all have everything we want. Now. I want it. Gimme. There are no poor people any more just people living in dept. If that sounds contradictory to you then good, you are paying attention.
People used to accumulate wealth. Since the mid-nineties (and during the prime years of Friends) there has been a shift. Now people accumulate products and status symbols – suspiciously like the characters in Friends… Why should we worry about dept? The characters in Friends rarely do – and they always land on their feet anyway, what's the worry?
As any psychologist will tell you we don't just learn from our own experiences, we learn from the experiences of people around us.
As any media studies student will tell you 9 out of 10 people you know are fictional.
I don't know about you but this scares the shit out of me.
Fictional worlds are, err, fictional.
As borrowing reaches record levels. As people spend more than they earn… Eventually in the real world something has to give.
Hence the breakdown of the economy in the states last year. Hence the recession that the UK will enter into this year. Hence all the repressions, bankruptcies, drinking disorders and suicides that are to come.
I know I'm over simplifying (it's a blog not a book damn it) but I hope I have made my point. Friends may have made you laugh but weigh that against the hurt pain and suffering that it has intentionally (remember the INTENTION) brought into millions of people's lives.
Can you reach any other conclusion other than that Friends is evil?
Part 2b : The TV show Friends must bare some responsibility for the events of 9/11.
Friends was the first show to be sold internationally on a percentage system. Put simply the show would sell itself as being worth 5% of any television networks' total budget (I'm using 5% because I can't remember the actual figure, look it up if you want to). This is very interesting and very evil.
In England a TV station would have to pay a lot of money to show Friends (5% of C4s budget is what media experts call 'a fuck load of cash') – in Kenya however 5% ain't much cash at all for such a well produced half hour of entertainment.
Fact is in poor countries their restricted budgets mean that they haven't a hope in hell of creating anything anywhere near as well constructed for as little as 5% of their total budget. It's a fucking bargain to them.
So isn't this a good thing?
Short answer – no.
Long answer – good god no, in fact it may have helped cause 9/11.
Picture this… You work 14 hours a day selling junk to tourists in Egypt. You have to pay the government for the permission to trade in the small areas the tourists are allowed to enter. You make just about enough for you and your wife and three children to eat, but if one of you gets sick you will probably die as you'll never be able to afford treatment. You have one room that you all sleep in. You only have one set of clothes. You do not have safe drinking water. You do have a TV.
You are typical of your kind.
You watch your TV.
Monica orders a large coffee and a muffin. Your mouth waters. She puts it in front of her and starts talking about whether she is going to marry the millionaire doctor or the lovable advertising executive. Her friends comfort her, all letting their drinks go cold. She continues to moan the studio audience are in tears. You wonder why she ordered that muffin if she's not going to eat it. You get angry at her greed. You get angry at the studio audience for giving sympathy to someone so spoilt for choice.
The more you watch the more you think, 'Fuck you. Fuck your muffin. Fuck Chandler. And more than anything else fuck Tom Selick'.
Why do people hate America?
Why did people cheer when Manhattan was hit?
I'm not saying that Friends caused 9/11. But I am saying that it would be foolish to not consider it as a contributing factor.
As I type this western troops are shooting and getting shot at in various locations around the Middle East. As you read this someone's house is getting reprocessed.
Can we blame this all on one TV show?
Would the levels of personal dept be this high if the TV show Friends had never been made?
Maybe not.
Would the events of 9/11 happened?
Probably.
Would the world have been more sympathetic to America after 9/11?
I think so.
Would this have prevented the wars that we are now engaged in?
Perhaps.
To quote John Lennon, "Imagine there's no Friends on, It's easy if you try…"
SAM
7:44 PM
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